Star Trek: Seven Sisters
by UnicoFanFiction
Summary: The year is 2378 and the crew of ex derelict Consolation Class ship called 'The Yeager' works the tri star systems known locally as 'The Seven Sisters'. There this multi species crew work on a shoe string budget delivering cargo and passengers between the many planets found within The Sisters. Hell they've even been known to do bounty hunting jobs.
1. Introduction

Hello and thank you for reading Star Trek: Seven Sisters. The reason for the introduction is due to the fact that unlike like a lot of Fan Fiction for ST this isn't set within the normal Starfleet settings. It's set within new systems within the Alpha Quadrant and uses a mix of aliens that are either new or previously seen in Enterprise, ToS, TNG, and DS9.

I hope you enjoy the stories that will appear over the next year and I welcome any comments or reviews. I will be writing them in seasons with 6 "episodes" per season. Below is additional material you can refer to if you wish.

STORY BACKGROUND:

The story revolves around the crews of The Yeager which is a 23rd Century Consolation class ship that is owned by a female Ferengi called Arlox Velma. The ship was bought from a Federation scrap yard and is a mismatch of retro fit 24th Century tech coming mostly from Klingon and Ferengi black-markets. Its skeleton crew of random species ply their skills running cargo and passengers for a fee, not all of their jobs are strictly legal but work is work. To supplement their funds they are even known to do the odd bounty hunter job.

Set during 2378 [24th Century] just beyond the rim of the Federation lays a place known locally as "The Seven Sisters". The name refers to the seven inhabitable planets found within three neighbour systems. The planets have never been entered into the Federation due to the fact they never invented Warp travel themselves. Instead it was given to them or back engineered from crashed alien races passing through the systems because the three systems where were tactical locations for races wanting to spy on the Federation over the last 200 years. Interplanetary trade is done mostly by the small fleet of ships the home planets own or outside private parties running materials and passengers for contracts.

The seven planets consist of 3 home plants of…

Planet: Mau'Tprek Species: The Mau

Planet: Direnos Species: The Direnosian

Planet: En Ghast Species: The Berlenghast

…and 4 colony planets;

Planet: Mau'Tprek VI Species: Mau, Xzindi, & Orions.

Planet: Direnos IV Species: Direnosian, Gorn, & Kardasian's Separatists.

Planet: En Ghast VII Species: Berlenghast, Mau & Direnosian.

Planet: En Ghast III Species: Berlenghast & A Kardasian Military outpost

MAIN CHARACTERS:

Arlox Velma. The Ship is owned by this female Ferengi who came to the Seven Sisters to make her own money. She runs the deals for Cargo, passengers and Bounty's. Unable to run the ship alone she has mashed together a random crew over the years. A hard business minded female her only real care is the amount of gold pressed latinum she can make to buy her way out of the Seven Sisters and into a more lucrative market.

She used to run the ship as well as the business but now just concentrates on the business side of things.

Captain John W Iley is a human who dropped out of Federation officer training half way through as he couldn't stand all the rules and regulations of Starfleet. Iley grafted for the next 15 years after leaving Starfleet on any ship he could, working his way up in the merchant fleets doing any job he could until he eventually made number 2 on a major freighter. He was approached by Arlox and tempted to the Seven Sisters with the promise of the Yeager being his first command.

Alexei Levin is the operations man who had served on the USS ENTERPRISE D a number of years earlier as a low level Intel assistant. He and his husband lived on the ship with their daughter until the crash at the Nexus Incident killed his husband who worked in Engineering. Arlox recruited him early on as the Operations Officer and now he and his now 14yr old daughter live and work on Yeager.

Helena Levin is the 14 yr old daughter of Alexei. A smart child but suffers from depression triggered by the death of her other father and she never fully recovered from the loss. She loves Alexei very much but can't seem to respond like a child her age should.

Morath Koloth is head engineer and in charge of keeping the ship flying. A tubby, elderly Klingon who was forced to leave the Empire shamed but won't say why. A strong drinker and always up for a fight this engineering genius is integral to keeping the Yeager's hardware running.

Girha Nesh is the newest member of the crew and fresh to the Sisters. She is a Betazoiod Medic who is taking on as the ship's doctor. Girha is a kind and caring women who could have worked anywhere in the Federation but she decides to work in the Seven Sisters systems as she see's it as being a greater cause.

Bruce Maddox was a cybernetics expert, and the Associate Chair of Robotics at the Daystrom Technological Institute. Obsessed with LTCDR Data's Positronic brain it eventually led him to being kicked out due to 'Immoral' testing. He fled the federation with a number of prototype parts and programming. As part of a deal to hide from the Federation Arlox allowed him continue his AI experiments as long as he worked on the ships many failing software systems. His attempt to keep the ship flying resulted in the creation of Yeager becoming semi sentient.

Mr Ord is a Bolian who is the liaison between the crew and passengers during voyages. He is also the Cargo Manger for any items the ship transports between locations, On the outside he seems to be a slightly camp , softly spoken person but really he is a highly intelligent man who knows just about everything on the ship and everyone's little secrets.

Yeager is the result of one of Maddox's positronic brain experiments going haywire and actually integrating it self to the ship. What happened is that the ships AI escalated in intelligence and became almost sentient. Thus the ship is a major crew member itself.

METROIDS are humanoid robots with no real artificial intelligence. Instead Yeager uses them as a physical extension of itself to run the systems it can't do automatically. These robots where stored on board the freight Maddox originally stole. These are normally used in mass production plants within the federation. Instead of being self learning, data is downloaded into them for the job they are needed. They are used all around the ship doing various tasks meaning the ship only needs a minimum crew. One mans the helm 24/7 while another helps Girha in sickbay.

REST OF THE CREW is made up of 16 other various species found across the Alpha Quadrant.


	2. S1Ep1 - All Aboard

He couldn't believe what he was reading on the datapad. John slumped against the wall of his quarters and slid down onto the floor letting out a desperate sigh in the process, the news had knocked the wind out of his stomach. He worked up the courage to look again at the rest of the text from the medical institute on Berlini Prime and skipped to the end conclusion.

'Gurlam Disease found positive within system. No known cure for Human species. Life expectancy is twelve to eighteen months'.

The beep of the intercom shuck him out of the daze he found himself in.

"Captain the cargo is ready and our guests have been shown to their rooms" It was the voice of Mr Ord. He was a Bolian crew member in charge of any passengers or cargo they took on. He was a portly and polite man with a soft tone and gentle manner, but by god he loved to gossip and knew all the latest scandal from the four corners of the Seven Sisters.

"Has our new Doctor arrived?" John asked trying to keep his voice as steady as possible so not to give away the fact he was seconds away from breaking down.

"Yes, she's sat near the airlock waiting for you".

"I'm on my way" he responded before killing the intercom.

Down by the airlock Mr Ord turned from the intercom, smiled and faced the new doctor for the ship. He watched as the pretty, female Betazoid looked wide eyed at the ships robot crew lifting the last of the boxes onto a grav-lift to take down to the cargo bay.

"Frightful little things aren't they?" he commented to her.

"I've never seen robots before". She answered as she smiled at Mr Ord.

"Oh the Federation is full of them down in their factories working day and night. No real call for these type of things on a starship normally."

The Captain had pulled himself together and was heading down to meet the new doctor the ships owner, Arlox Velma had organised for the crew.

"Would you like me to search databases for any kind of alternate treatment Captain"?

Yeager's voice crackled over the hallway speakers.

"Christ, keep it down you idiot" replied a nervous and surprised Captain as he looked about to make sure he was alone.

"I thought we had spoke about you nosing through crew documents".

There was a brief pause.

"I can not be held responsible considering I am the ship's A.I and all data passes through my systems".

John took a deep sigh. He promised himself he wouldn't get into a debate with his own ship... again.

"Yeager its an order okay. Or so help me God I'll have Maddox confine you to the replicator systems".

"Yes Captain".

A few minutes later and John had joined both Mr Ord and the doctor Girha Nesh. She turned to find him walking down the deck towards them. On the outside he beamed a warm welcoming smile but her abilities as a Batazoid let her know he was sexually attracted to her. She allowed a small grin to herself, it was nice to know she'd have options. Hell the man is quite the looker himself she thought.

"Welcome to the family" began John. "Mr Ord can you complete the delivery and let Jena know we can ship out"?

"Yes my Captain".

John indicated for her to follow him as he began to walk back down the deck.

"So Mr Ord you've met..."

"Wait, Mr?" Interrupted Girha.

"Now, now Doctor if the man wants to dress in a feminine manner then who are we to judge" smiled John.

She laughed nervously.

"I didn't mean anything by it. Just I've not been anywhere outside of my own planet".

"Plenty new and strange out in the Sisters lady" he smiled. " The name's John W Illey and I'm the Captain of the Yeager by the way. I'll take you straight to sickbay so you can get set up".

"That would be fine". She smiled warmly and caught him blushing slightly.

As they walked the halls the Captain explained what their business is within the Seven Sister Systems as he went on to tell her how they can ship cargo or passengers all over for a fee. Finally they reached sickbay.

"If I could ask Captain, what happened to your previous doctor"?

"Oh he's still here".

She sensed a jokingly attitude in his answer. John opened the doors to reveal a Metroid stood waiting for them. The robot looked slightly ridiculous in its lab coat.

"Erm... this was your ship's doctor" Girha asked.

"In a sense. Yeager was the doctor, Nursey here was his 'hands' you could say" He chuckled.

"Wait, Yeager? Isn't that the ships name"?

Suddenly the ships voice came through the rooms speaker system.

"You're a quick learner. Not just a pair of breasts it would seem Doctor".

John couldn't believe what he heard, he would have been happy for the ground to swallow him up at that point.

"You'll have to ignore our ship's A.I. He can be a little... well you'll come to see". Apologised John.

Girha stood mouth open in shock. The Captain took the opportunity to escape.

"Well have a look about and i'll have your belongings brought to your room. Yeager fill the new Doc in will you"?

And with that he made his exit.

Moments later he was arriving on the bridge, as he exited the turbolift up on the main view screen he could see they were at warp already. In his OPs station next to helm was Alexei Levin looking bored and spinning in his seat. At the helm was a Metroid they had nicknamed Jena. Even though Yeager had a presence in every main and subsystem he couldn't give his total attention all at once. Luckily due to the deal with Maddox they had twenty of these Federation bots to maintain many of the stations around the ship. And of course this meant that they could take on minimal crew in other areas which Arlox was very happy as it kept more money in her pocket.

"So" asked Alexei without even looking up "Will you attempt to wine and dine this good doctor"?

John smiled back as he took his seat in the Captains chair. "You behave yourself".

It was at this point he notice Alexei's teenage daughter sat leaning against the main viewscreen. She was playing a palm-held holo game and was paying no attention to anyone while looking to be in a world of her own. John noticed she was wearing her other dad's jumper again. He looked at Alexei who give a tired smile and a small nod. John knew that when she wore Alexei's dead husbands tops she was having one of her deep depressions.

"Hey kid, what you playing" he asked aloud but she just ignored him.

The intercom bleeped and was followed by Arlox's voice.

"John can you come to my office right away".

"On my way boss" and with that the Captain stepped into the ready room located just off the Bridge.

Sat at her desk was Arlox Velma the ships owner and the woman who did all the legal and not so legal deals for the crew. She was a tiny but fierce Ferengi female who was determined to cut her own business empire within the Sisters.

"Take a seat John" she motioned to the seat opposite her desk.

"We're underway Boss. We should be only 8 hours from En Ghast III and speaking of which any chance you are going to tell us co-ordinates we should park up in orbit"?

Arlox passed over a datapad showing what he needed.

"Erm, that's a little close to the little Cardassian military base isn't it"? he asked.

"He's paying triple to be beamed down next to there so as you can imagine human I don't give a damn. The rest we're just dropping off at the orbital sub-station" she replied with a dismissive tone.

"You may give a damn when the Cardassian orbital defense satellites blow a hole in us"

"We'll be fine. For this much gold pressed…"

"Yeah, Yeah i get it" John interrupted "anyway who's the guy with deep pockets"?

"With that kind of money its best not to ask".

John turned to leave but just before he reached the door a thought entered his head.

"Hang on we didn't have any Cardassian on the passenger manifest" he stated.

Arlox raised an eyebrow and beckoned him to leave with a wave of her hand. John walked back on the bridge and looked over to Alexei who was still spinning in his chair bored.

"Alexei when was the last time we checked the shields work"?

"sorry, what"? he replied as he stopped dead "shields"?

John walked straight over to the turbolift and stepped in, before the doors closed he shouted out "You best give the phasers a once over as well".

Alexei spun back to his console "well… that's a set of orders with hair on it's chest" he muttered to himself.

Minutes later John was in main Engineering. The old Constellation class refit ships had a two deck Engineering section similar to the newer Galaxy class ships, but unlike the newer ships it was by far a smaller area to work in.

"Hello Captain" smiled Brooks. Other than John, Alexei and Helena, Brooks was the only other human working on the Yeager. The Captain give him a nod and a smile as he passed on his way towards the shouting coming from a Engineering duct.

"I swear to my warrior ancestors I will torch this puny ship" the shouting was coming from inside the duct. The voice was that of lead engineer Morath Koloth, a Klingon who was solely responsible for keeping Yeager glued together at the seams. John kicked the side of the opening.

"If you get stuck in their I'm not replicating grease to slide you out again". Joked the Captain. What followed was the dull sound of Morath hitting his head and then what John reckoned was excessive Klingon swearing. A few seconds later and the big man pulled himself of the duct and replaced the cover.

"Why did Arlox think it was a good idea to buy a bloody federation ship. This damn things fall apart all the time" Morath prodded John in the chest "Why do you think you Federation types have such large Engineering crews"?

"You've been in charge of Engineering for over a year now you chubby Klingon whinge…" John looked at him with deadpan expression "...and you're still moaning".

The chubby Klingon gave a massive belly laugh and slapped John on the shoulder. The Captain laughed back trying not to give away that it felt that the engineer near enough broke his collarbone with his massive hands.

"How is everything down here"? John asked as he rotated his arm to sooth the shoulder pain.

"Morath has been updating my plasma injectors, and doing a fine job of it" added Yeager.

Morath leaned into the Captain and whispered into his ear while keeping one eye to the ceiling.

"That A.I is getting more and more creepy each day"

"For the last time it's not an ' 's a highly sophisticated positronic brain which has resulted in the third only known sentient intelligence of it's kind". The voice came from the second level. John and Morath looked up to see an annoyed Bruce Maddox leaning over the safety barrier scowling at them both.

"Still say it's creepy" muttered Morath.

"And how's our resident Federation fugitive today dear Doctor"? shouted John up to Bruce.

But before he could get a snarky response the alert alarm went on the Captains wrist communicator, He clicked it to transmit on the other end was Mr Ord.

"Captain you and the doctor better get up to cabin 45 straight away".

As John reached the correct deck with the Girha he could see that Yeager had already stationed a Metroid on one end of the corridor keeping the other passengers away. Mr Ord was stood in the doorway trying to look calm but John could see the panic in his eyes. As he and the Doc entered the room they were met by the view of a dead Berleni lying face down on the floor, the back of his neck looked like something had exploded out the back. The room was covered in sick and green blood from the reptilian.

"Christ it stinks in here" John exclaimed as he held his hand over his mouth.

"That's the stomach acid from the deceased. Berleni have a particularly rancid stomach acid" replied Girha.

"The alarm was raised by the family next door, they could hear a lot of noise through the wall. When the father came out the door was open and well…" Mr Ord paused as though no one would believe him".

"Spit it out" This stern tone came from Arlox who had joined them finally in the cabin.

"... he said that the deceased here was in the process of snapping his own neck" Mr Ord finally said.

"Okay, thats clearly the strangest thing thats happened this week" half joked John.

The Doctor had already leant down by the body and began her scans with her medical tricorder. She was paying close attention to the gaping hole in the back of the dead guys neck.

"Ord get Yeager to get that Metroid outside to put everyone back into their rooms, go with it to help" ordered Arlox "John I'm going to want a full report in my ready room within the hour"

"Yes boss" replied the Captain.

Suddenly the whole deck was alight with red alert lights and a claxon.

"What the hell now" asked John as he clicked his communicator to speak to Alexei.

"Captain we've a red alert in Engineering, I'm getting no communic…" but before Alexei could finish his sentence the comms went out. John shot a look at Arlox who stepped out the way as the Captain bolted out of the room and towards the nearest turbolift.

"Yeager" he yelled "what the hell is going on"?

The speaker system kicked in but Yeager's voice came through like heavy static and falling apart. "Captain… Engineering… intruder…".

Just before reaching main Engineering John stopped at a secure weapons cupboard and retrieved a Bajoran phaser which they had stashed all over the ship. As he entered the room he could see that all the Metroids were stood looking at something on the second deck. On the floor was a dead crewman, a Mau they had just taken on as a temp crew member. His face was smashed in by something with a great force which must have killed him instantly. Looking up at where all the metroids were watching. On the second deck at a console was Brooks. Suddenly all the Metroids began moving again and pointed at Books repeating over and over, "Intruder".

"Brooks what the hell is going on"? yelled John up to him.

without looking Brooks pulled out another Bajoran phaser and shot on the Captain. The yellow phaser beam narrowly missed John as he dove behind the main warp core to take cover. In the main entrance Alexei appeared with one of his own Type 2 Phaser from his collection. He had saw where the phaser fire had come from and rolled in through the door and instantly shot back at that location. The blue energy beam missed its target and covered Brooks in sparks as it hit above his head, Alexei dove behind the warp core with John who was still taking cover.

"Bloody hell you mad Russian. Stick that damn thing on stun will you, I want Brooks alive" yelled John as another phaser shot hit near them.

"I'm not going to lie Captain. This has made the day more exciting" grinned Alexei who was enjoying himself to the point it almost worried his Captain friend.

"I'll draw his fire you better make the shot count Alexei" warned John as he took one last breath before making his run towards the stairs leading to the second level. Alexei took a few seconds to aim and let a blast strike Brooks right in the upper chest knocking himself back against the wall and sending him unconscious. John made his way up the stairs and was just about to approach the knocked out Brooks when he was distracted by the compartment doors slamming shut as if there was to be some kind or core breach. John looked back at the body of his crewman to find Brooks awake with his eyes open looking right at him.

"Oh Shi-"

The last thing John remembered was the sensation of being knocked painfully through the air.

Girha looked at her datapad, the Captain had been out cold for almost two hours now. She used a hyperspray on him to bring him out of the medical induced coma she had, had him in to tend to his internal wounds. John slowly opened his eyes and looked about. In a dry raspy voice he said.

"What happened"?

He became aware that he wasn't alone with the doctor, by the bed was Alexei, Arlox and Morath. At the back of the room leaning against the wall with his arms crossed was Maddox.

"Try and stay relaxed" Girha warned "you've had surgery but you should be okay".

John tried to sit himself up on his bed as Morath helped him.

"We had a serious problem John, we may still do" said Arlox.

"Where's Brooks"? asked the Captain.

"Dead. Tall dark and gay here blew the front of it's head off" mocked Arlox as she shot Alexei a look.

"Yeah… yeah I did" smiled Alexei which was met with a tut from the big boss.

Girha interrupted before the Human and Ferengi got back into their earlier fight regarding phaser fire, warp cores and dead crewmen.

"Look Brooks wasn't who you thought he was… well he was when he joined us but that thing you fought, definitely not Brooks"

"Indeed. The man was barely competent and basic software maintenance and what we saw today was on a genius level" said Maddox from the back of the room.

"The way he broke through the system firewalls and then locked Yeager out all while systematically gaining control of main Engineering and bridge controls is in short, frightening". he continued as he joined the other around the bed.

"We believe that he brought the containment barriers down in Engineering because he was going to kill life support in all of the other decks" added Alexei "Maddox managed to bring Yeager back online but its taking a while for his systems to reset".

John was still confused "What the hell happened to me"? "Well Brooks threw you from the second floor and across into the warp core shielding" replied Alexei.

We say Brooks but really it was 'this' that used Brooks and as a meat suit" added Girha as she passed him a datapad. On it was security footage showing a bug like parasite scurrying out of the cabin of the dead Mau. The footage then changed to it entering main Engineering.

"What the hell did I just watch"? asked a concerned and confused John.

Arlox spoke "We Ferengi call them 'The Jinn'. A particularly troublesome species of parasite".

"I believe it was in the Mau and the host body just failed. Probably due to some pre existing disease. Then it found Brooks" Girah added as she took her medical tricorder and began her final scan of John. The Captain swung his legs off the bed. He still had questions, this was the first time having to deal with something on this scale. It twisted his head that was for sure.

"Wait" he began "You said he was attempting bridge control, meaning he was going to kill us all off and take Yeager for his own. any idea where"?

Arlox answered him, John could see was still shaken by the whole thing.

"Same course as we were on. the only difference would be he would stick us in low orbit directly over the Cardassian military outpost".

John wondered if this Jinn was planning an attack on the base, but given the age and firepower of the Yeager he seriously doubted it. The Cardassians would have blew holes in them within seconds which left only one other option.

"So what would the Cardassian's want with an out of commision Federation starship"? he finally asked.

"What's to say there is Cardassians down there"? The Jinn 'take over' they don't 'work with' other species. I'm going to make a few calls. I want you all in my ready room within an hour". And with that Arlox turned and left.

The time had come and Morath, the Doctor, Alexei and Captain Illey were all stood in the Ferengi's ready room in front of her desk.

"Well then, how's the ship"? She began.

"I'm fully operational" came Yeagers voice "Father is still in Engineering completing the last of my firewall update".

It creeped Morath out the ship he worked on referred to a crewmember as its father. Such an A.I would never be allowed on a Klingon ship.

"Good" replied Arlox "We can't afford to lose any profit right now".

"I think profit is the least of our problems" said John. Arlox looked at him with a 'are you serious' look. After all this was a Ferengi he was speaking too. Girha took her chance to jump in.

"My autopsies concluded that the parasite aggressively took control of Mr Brooks by digging into the back of his neck. Clearly not taking the time and care it did with The Mau host. Bar the obvious bug attached to the upper spine it releases a strong enzyme".

"A scan of myself looking for that same enzyme indicates that bar the Mau and Mr Brooks there is no sign of other hosts" added Yeager.

"So at least we don't have to worry about another one onboard" Remarked John.

Alexei turned to Arlox and asked.

"You mentioned you were aware of them, so what's the story"?

"As some of you know back when I was younger I worked as an intelligence agent for the Grand Nagus. About twenty years ago he had one of his mining operations working a moon on one of our rim planets. A very profitable venture for the first few years until we lost contact with them so we sent out a ship to investigate. What they found was the community out there in a sort of civil war. One side was saying the others were possessed while the other side said the same thing. Anyway we ended up losing the ship. The Nagus couldn't risk anymore loss so he sent three ships out there, found the original ship destroyed by its own hand it seemed and the mining facility burning. From the ships logs we uploaded before forcing the wrekage into the atmosphere its deep scans showed cavens right under the facility. So we destroyed everything from orbit and hushed it all up" Explained Arlox somberly.

"God that's terrible" said Girha quietly.

"Indeed it was, a lot of profit lost that day" The Ferengi replied "We think the Jinn as we called them were in stasis down there and the drilling brought them back. This was backed up from a few dead samples we beamed aboard".

"Why call them The Jinn"? Asked Morath.

"Named after an old Ferengi's wifes tale. Like the Bogie man on Earth".

Each member of the crew wondered what their next step was going to be. It was Alexei who eventually asked.

"Not a damn thing" John replied "We count ourselves lucky and get on with the job. We still have people and cargo to deliver on En Gast III".

Arlox rose from her desk and nodded in agreement with the Captain.

"Right everyone out. You all have jobs to do. Doctor I suggest you burn the Mau's body and prepare Brooks own carcass best you can. His family will be wanting it returned I'd imagine".

And with that they all filed out of the ready room. Arlox watched the last one leave before leaning back in her chair.

"Yeager"?

"Yes madam"? He responded.

"Patch me through to Ferengi high command. And keep it off the official logs".

"May I ask why"?

Arlox took a deep breath before closing her eyes.

"I'm going to need to call in a favour" she said finally.

End of Episode.


End file.
